Vampire Master, Bjorn Tremayne... what the heck is he up to now?

Fourth novel in the Sabrina Strong series
due out in May 2014

Hello, all my lovelies. Well, you know I'm about to release the next book in the Sabrina Strong series--

About dang time...

--and I was thinking I need to give you all a preview, let you get to know the characters, or re-acquaint you with some of them. Because of the way I've written this book, you will get to see inside my main characters, Vasyl, Bill, Tremayne, and Rick, the leprechaun, plus a few more as well.

Today let us take a look at Bjorn Tremayne. You know, he's become a rogue? And his scrambling to keep whatever wealth he has left from being frozen by the new master of the realm. Well, let us just have a peek, shall we? Bjorn has just come back from his night of feeding. He's managed to talk/scare Sabrina into coming with him, in order to stay ahead of demons who are after her (she has a bounty on her head).

“So, you didn't answer me. How did your night go? Or do I want to know?” Rick said from his spot on the couch, feet on the coffee table. He turned down the volume of the television with the remote.

Bjorn shot a frown at the leprechaun's feet, then softened. This wasn't his place... Why should I give a fuck if Rick is comfortable?

“It was nearly a bust,” he said on a heavy sigh, running thick fingers through his hair. He paused near the kitchenette. Frustration from the need to feed and have sex with the woman he'd captured—but couldn't because all hell had let loose—had him wanting to rage on someone, and the only available person was the leprechaun. Could life suck more right now?

Brown eyes stared up at him. Leprechauns and vampires did not mix well. His decision to bring Rick along at all was because he was the only magical creature he could cajole and bribe to do what he needed. So far, things were going fine. He reminded himself it would take time.

Rick flicked off the TV. “Really? Why? What happened?”

Bjorn stared a few more seconds at him. Making up his mind to tell him, he walked over and settled into an arm chair. Leaning forward, fingers laced between his knees he said, “You ever hear of someone named Priscus?”

“No. What is that? A man or a woman?” Rick asked, frowning.

“A man. Or he looks to be a man, but what he is exactly, I don't know.”

“Wow. No kidding? But no, never heard of any one by that name.”

“How about an albino?”

“An albino?” Rick drew his feet off the coffee table and sat up with a concerned look on his face. His feet couldn't quite reach the floor and hung about four inches above the green carpet.

“Does that ring any bells?”

“What was he? Another vampire?”

“No. Not precisely. Not like me, anyway. He wanted to know if I was going to drain the woman I'd captured.”

“Why? Did he want to share?”

“No. Not in the way a vampire shares a meal. He said he was going to feed on her life force—I took it to mean her soul. He wanted to know if I was going to drain her so that he could feed on her soul.”

“Holy crap!”

Bjorn rubbed the back of his neck, long blond hair falling down into his face until he tossed it back. “And then, when someone came along, he vanished.” He shook his head. “I've never met up with anything like him before. He moved faster than a vampire. Even I couldn't see when he moved from one position to the next. So, most of the time, he held very still, as though he wanted me to be able to see and speak to him.”

“Wow.”

“You've never heard of such a thing?”

“No, but I can make some calls in the morning,” Rick said.

Bjorn nodded. “I'll take watch. You go and get some sleep. In the morning, you take Sabrina over to that restaurant and get some breakfast. I'll leave some cash for you for meals and buy something at the gift shop, if you want.”

“Alright.” Rick slowly slid off the couch. “You have some destination in mind? I mean we aren't just wandering nomads, are we?”

“I'm working on that,” Bjorn said. “I'll let you know. For now, just get some sleep. You're on duty all day tomorrow.”

“Right. Good night,” Rick said as he slipped off the couch. He made his way across the room.

“'Night.”

Now, you see he has a problem, and he doesn't know if it's a large one, or something that he'll be able to handle. But these little problems are mounting. He needs to check in with his right-hand man Nicolas to find out what that witch, Ilona, has been up to while visiting.

Bjorn sat back in the chair, wondering where Nicolas was at the moment. In his own suite, he supposed, in his robe and either drinking Real Red, or had one of his paramours handy.

“Five of her very elite arrived today.”

“Five? All vampires?”

“Yes.”

“Do we know them?”

“One of them is J.C. Durmont. The others are lesser in rank, but notoriously deadly.”

Bjorn's lips curled. JC Durmont was a heavy in his brother's select sentinel. A 215 year old vampire who was—had been—his brother's right hand man. He stood six-seven, looked like an ogre, and was built like an oak door—he was the same thickness from his huge feet to his huge head. One thick brow caterpillared across a heavy brow. What he lacked in intelligence he more than made up in brutish strength. Automatically, the memory of the one time he'd challenged JC to a sparring match to see what he was made of came to the forefront. The bastard had nearly killed him—he was enormously strong and had Tremayne pinned with his razor-like teeth embedded into his chest (for some reason the idiot like to bite the chest—which was the only thing that had saved Tremayne—his teeth would have sawed his head off if he'd bitten him in the neck), and Erik, who controlled JC, held off telling the ogre to stop, just to prolong his embarrassment, and teach him a “lesson” in who had the stronger sentinels. Tremayne had to cry uncle before Erik would call his dog off.

JC was Ilona's lap dog now. How the hell had this happened?

“This is not good news,” Bjorn said out loud.

“She is calling you an outlaw,” Nicolas added. “She's making it a public statement to the Powers that Be.”

“Well, fuck.” Tremayne shifted in his chair. To be labeled an outlaw meant that she had the right to legally—within vampire law—freeze his assets (those in the United States). He would have to act and fast.

“What is it you wish to do, Sire?”

Tremayne closed his eyes and breathed out, counting to ten. It helped to hold back the scream of rage he wanted to make. He didn't want to wake or alarm his companions. “You remain stationed as you are. I'm going ahead with plan A.” As he had been doing, and so far everything was going smoothly.

“Is she with you?”

“Yes. Of course.” Tremayne's brow flicked slightly at the way Nicolas had avoided using her name. So, Nicolas no longer brooded over the sibyl. Sabrina was now a “she” to him. Had he written her off that easily? I wonder. For Nicolas to become worked up about any female—human or vampire—was unusual. But then she was the sibyl. Nicolas had desired Sabrina to be his, before they knew what she was. Tremayne wanted Sabrina, and denied Nicolas to make any move on her. Once Tremayne learned she was the sibyl—well, only a master could rightfully claim her. The fact that Vasyl had swooped in before Tremayne was a big annoyance. So, he'd concocted a plan. So far the plan had worked. Getting Vasyl away from the house, using a distraction, had been his idea from the beginning. No need to involve anyone, except his minions who did his bidding.

“How did you get her away from him?” Nicolas asked, pulling Tremayne out of his thoughts.

“Sent in my sentinels.”

“All of them?”

“Of course. Vasyl is as strong as I.” He knew that a few of his minions had given their lives for him, which is part of a sentinel's job. It was enough of a distraction to hold Vasyl at bay, while Tremayne took Sabrina away. Three had perished—he'd gotten a text earlier about it—that left him with ten in his sentential. They had done their job.

~*~

A yawn escaped Bjorn, and he closed his cell phone. The drive had been tedious, and now these last minute details to take care of, trying to avoid being left penniless when Ilona worked toward a take-over because he was deemed a “rogue”, had drained him the rest of the way. A nap was long overdue.

Long steps took him into the hall. He paused, looking down the hall where his two humans bunked. Correction, one leprechaun, and one V.I.P. Was she was asleep? He closed his eyes, reached out and was able to ascertain she was into REM. Good. I came too close. Too damned close. He had to stay away from her—not touch her like that again. At least not yet. He had to keep telling himself her blood was off-limits, as much as he longed for it.

How he would do that, while sitting right next to her, as he drove eight-hundred miles, and not want her so badly he could go mad, was beyond him.

Well, you see what I mean? He's getting in a little deeper as he goes along. Sabrina's blood is something he can't keep his mind off of--well, that and having sex with her, something he has been wanting to address for a long, long while, and he thinks he's got a perfect plan. Do you wonder if he can have his way with her, and not kill her, this time? Not only that, he will have to out-wit the Mystic Ring, which can thwart most vampire thralls. Hmmmm....

Vampire Caprice will be out this month--we are crossing our fingers!

Pitting a vampire against a leprechaun...

Good evening, dawlings!
Well, I've been sooo busy working on another WIP, and I've been neglecting things here. *sorry* I don't want you to forget my fourth Sabrina Strong book is still being worked on. I'm slating it for a possible February release--but don't hold me to that. I'm doing my best working on it along with everything else that's been going on in my life.
Here is the book's cover:

My friend Lucy Pireel helped me with this cover!

With that said, let me give you a sample from the book. You know, what I love to do is place one loose cannon (character) with another. You just never know what the outcome might be. It could be exciting, volatile, might be funny and at the same time crazy. The two in this scene are my big handsome, seven foot tall vampire mogul, Bjorn Tremayne, and the other is Rick, the leprechaun who has a birth defect and left him with almost no arms, but hands situated at his shoulders. Well, these two are such complete opposites in stature and in mannerisms, and I love to throw the two together and see what comes of it. 
Let's go check in and see what Rick is up to right now...

While holding the brush with the toes of his right foot, Rick brushed his hair and aimed the hair dryer with his left foot. His toes were long, and nimble. He could write with both hands, and both feet, sometimes at the same time, but not when he was drunk. He tried that once on a dare and had fallen off his stool—in Tom's Tavern. It had the whole place guffawing. Besides, he thought his handwriting was much better when he held a pen in his right foot, than the left foot, or either of the hands. It was mainly because he could see what he was writing. The kind sisters at the orphanage of Our Lady of Perpetual Grace had helped him develop and work on his disability when he was old enough to learn to read and write. Sister Fred was his favorite nun. She had the disposition of a saint, and put up with his horseplay, as well as the magic he could do. Plus she'd kept his abilities a secret. She thought his magic was a “gift from God”. Well, maybe they were. But he was merely a leprechaun, and not a rich one either. The pile of money had dried up a long time ago from the settlement for the birth defect he was born with because of the drug his mother had taken while pregnant. But he would be fixing that real soon with the deal Tremayne had offered him.

Seated on the toilet, using his hands to keep himself steady holding on to the corner of the sink and the corner of the toilet tank, his hair was nearly dry. He'd slept the whole day, and when he woke up, he felt refreshed—and no longer needed to worship the porcelain god from altitude sickness. It was dark out, too, he noticed. Chris had shown him his room, earlier, and since no one was using the shower, he had ducked in here with his shower supplies. He loved the multiple shower heads, as he could aim the lower ones right where he needed them. He didn't think he'd been so clean in all his life—he felt squeaky clean. He was pretty sure he hadn't sung that well in a long while, either.

I wonder what they might eat for dinner.

His relaxed thoughts were jolted when someone suddenly materialized in the bathroom with him. He cried out. The hair dryer flew out of his toes and clattered to the floor. Rick wound up there with it; the towel that had been wrapped around him, now flopped open leaving him as exposed as a flasher. The headache he'd gotten rid of was now back after hitting his head on the vanity.

“SHIT!” He leaped to his feet, magicked the towel back around him and stared at the huge vampire who had materialized out of nowhere. “What the fuck are you doing? You scared the crap-olla outta me!”

“It didn't work,” Tremayne said, seeming unconcerned about the situation, and chaos he had caused. He gazed down at him, then offered a hand to help him up. Rick took it, but wasn't happy.

“What?!” Rick's face had gone hot and he imagined it redder than it had been a moment ago from the hot shower.

Tremayne sighed and rolled his eyes. “I said it didn't work. That thing you did to keep me from wanting her blood.”

“What do you mean? I did like you told me. You two looked really cuddly-smoochy when I walked in there the other night.”

“I couldn't be close to her without feeling the desire for her blood.”

“Well, you're a vampire. What do you expect?”

“I thought you said you could do something about that.”

“If I take away your need for blood, totally, it would be total. I don't know if I can bring it back. You don't want that, do you?”

Tremayne paused in thought.

“You don't want that. Right? You'd never want blood again.”

“No. That wouldn't work either.” He let out a frustrated sigh, raked his fingers through his golden locks.

“You might as well face it, dude. You need to find a different way.”

“I do have a few ideas, actually. I've just implemented one, and now I need you to go and get me some virgin's blood.”

“You're shitting me. Right?”

“No. I'm not. And I'm giving you less than an hour to get it to me.”

Rick sighed. “How much?”

“How much? Ah...” Tremayne's eyes darted away from him in thought. “A couple of ounces, if you can't do a whole pint.”

“That might cost me.”

“My credit's good. You know that.”

“Done. What will that do—the virgin's blood?” Rick wondered.

“Take my mind off her blood.”

“Really?”

Tremayne gave him a side glance. “You're kidding me? Virgin anything for a man is heaven.”

“Ah. Right, right.” Rick nodded. Vampires, shit.

“Also, I've got to have you get her to cover her ring up. I can't thrall her if she has the ring uncovered.”

“Okay. What if I make it so that she doesn't uncover it? She just thinks she did.”

Tremayne slid his eyes to the leprechaun. A smile bent his lips. “Now I know why I hired you.”

“Yeah, yeah. Now get the hell out of here so I can finish up.”

Tremayne turned to go, but stopped. “I wondered how you managed to... you know, without... you know?” He made hand gestures toward the hair dryer.

“Get the fuck out of here!” Rick snarled and pushed him toward the door. Tremayne ducked out into the hall, and Rick slammed the door as soon as Tremayne was out. He reached down to pick up the hair dryer. He saw bits and pieces of it scattered on the floor. “Aw, fuck.” He shook his head slowly. With a snap of his fingers the pieces flew back together. The dryer came to life and he magically floated it toward his head. “I knew I shouldn't have gotten mixed up with a vampire. I just knew it.”

Happy May Day to you all!

Hello, my pretties! You may not have noticed, but I have replaced my old picture with a new one. Sort of tired of the blood dripping down the chin thing. This one is much better. Don't you agree? Mostly because when the picture is small, you can't tell she has fangs, but if you look close, she definitely has fangs. Plus, well, she's somewhat lusty-looking. I like to turn heads in the virtual world, don't you know?

Since this is Tuesday and I usually do Teaser Tuesday, I was thinking of going on with the idea of putting up different characters of the book. Now that it's a new month (last month was devoted to the women in Vampire's Trill), I think I'll go with the male secondary characters who make up the background of the story and keep things very interesting.

So, today I thought I would introduce you to Rick, the leprechaun. As a writer, I knew if I made the leprechaun very different from what people expected, he would become well received. Rick is part human, but very little of that is evident, aside from his human disability--he has no arms. His hands are joined almost at the shoulders, but he has wrists. I didn't explain it fully in Vampire's Trill--but that will be addressed in a future book (the 4th one). He was born with this birth defect called phocomelia, caused by the mother's use of thalidomide while pregnant. I actually met a person with this defect. He would get on my bus now and then, and go to work at a bar nearby. He was friendly, seemed always happy, and I treated him with due respect I do anyone who gets on my bus.

I had wanted to use a character with some sort of disability, and when I thought of Rick, the leprechaun, I felt he needed to have a big challenge in life, and have a somewhat sad history. Thus, Rick was born in my second book. I leave you with a short excerpt. This is from Chapter 23

I landed on something solid, yet it wasn't flat. It had form.

I clearly had some sort of form myself, now — thank you! Meanwhile, landing knocked the breath out of me, and it took me a while to pull it back in. There’s nothing quite as scary as being unable to get air for a few seconds. Whatever I was laying upon also took one gigantic breath and let it out with a deep groan. My panic rose anew. I thought I was lying on a bear.

I looked up and saw Tremayne's face above mine. As his head rose from its reclined position, I realized I lay right on top of him, chest to chest, as though we had both landed exactly this way.

“Oh, sorry,” I said as I pushed up. My hands grasped each of his wide, muscular shoulders, my legs were sandwiched between his thick thighs putting my knees in a decidedly awkward position against him. Oh Momma! It was too late to remedy this situation, and my panic cord had broken.

“Not at all. You can be on top any time,” he smirked. Hands grasping my waist, he helped me sort of roll off him to land awkwardly on my butt. Oow.

Face burning, I threw him a well-deserved scowl. Then, someone's muffled voice caught our attention. It seemed to be coming from underneath Tremayne. He rolled to the side, and underneath was Rick, sputtering swears that nearly burned my ears.

“You stupid blood-sucking pantie wipe!” Rick fumed as he slowly rolled over and struggled to his knees, his body bent in half.

“Uh-oh, you crushed the leprechaun,” I said.

“Sorry, sorry,” Tremayne said, dipping down. He grabbed Rick by the back of his coat and hoisted him up with one swift motion. Righted and standing on his two feet, Rick looked as mad as a rumpled leprechaun could look. I wasn't sure why Tremayne was so accommodating, apologizing again and again, but it probably had a lot to do with the fact that leprechauns were magical. I guessed that if Rick were truly mad, he could do something to Tremayne. Something nasty.

In the next moment, I lost sight of Tremayne and felt, rather than saw him move with lightning speed somewhere in front of me. We were in a dark place. My eyes were trying to adjust. I saw red and purple lights flashing, mostly, above me, and they seemed to bombard the walls that surrounded us. I didn't look up to see where it came from. Instead, my focus was on Tremayne whose body blocked my view of something that was in front of him. Hunched over, he was in a fighting pose. Growling from both Tremayne and the other creature in there with us filled the chamber. In one swift move, Tremayne had slammed someone, or something, up against a stonewall.

“Holy crap! Come here, darling,” Rick said with a hoarse squeak. He didn't touch me, but I launched away from the fracas that was going on mere feet away, and slammed into the opposite wall.

“Sorry. You okay?” Rick asked in a soothing tone. I realized he'd used his magic to move me quickly out of the way of something long and undulating.

“Yeah, I'm fine. Stunned, but fine.” What's a little bump on the head if it saves me from real danger? I turned my attention to the affray. “What is that?”

“I'm not quite sure yet, but it is buuuutt ugly.”

©2011 Vampire's Trill – Lorelei Bell

Guest Host: Sabrina Strong ~ Being a Were-Creature Really Sucks!

Hi, there everyone! Sabrina Strong in for Lorelei Bell who has just gone on vacation, and I'm so jealous. I haven't had a vacation in almost a year. But, I'm in here today to fill in for Lorelei. Just for today. Lorelei will be back at the helm soon.

Meanwhile, I was just wondering what I would post about today, instead of nasty old vampires.

Well, there's all sorts of supernatural creatures out there. And doggone it if I didn't run smack dab into one one night and it bit me!

You remember? I was bitten by a werewolf. You were probably wondering Will Sabrina turn into a werewolf? So, I'm here to tell you, I didn't turn into a werewolf totally. I became a were-creature. Half-human and half—the other thing.

You see, we didn't know if Nicolas had gotten all the werewolf venom out of me, or was in time getting to me after chasing off the werewolf that bit me. Well, turns out, I had to go through the transformation. Believe me, waking up in the middle of a corn field naked on a November morning is not my idea of fun. You can just about have this werewolf business! But my vision and olfactory senses are about 10 percent better than they were before. I'm also more aware of pheromones, auras, and the like. I can't see auras, I can just detect them better than before I was bitten. I feel them, sort of like you feel humidity, or the lack of it. I feel a strong aura when I meet up with one, and it either attracts me, or makes me wary. It's a good thing to know when you're in the presences of someone who is supernatural.

Of course, there are still those I don't get a read from. Being a touch clairvoyant, I'm able to know things about people who are around me. Also, places. I know exactly the lay out of a house or building before I even step into it. Sort of cool, I think. But the knowing things about people sometimes gets me into trouble. And also, it helps me find out things that I need to know to help others. So, it's sort of a double edged sword where the knowing kicks in without my even inviting it and I sometimes go into a trance and won't come out for a while. It tends to scare people who aren't prepared for it.

I'm unable to tell you too much about this, but I can tell you that Dante, the Native American shift-changer, was with me to protect me. But afterwards I met up with some more werewolves. It was a little touch and go, I can tell you that much. They were all waiting for me up at my house. Fortunately, Dante was with me—as I said—and so were the twins.

If you forgot who the twins are, they are Heath and Lief Sufferden from Liverpool, England, and both were turned into vampires in 1969. If you don't know this, then you didn't read the first book, Vampire Ascending. So, if you don't want to get lost, you'd better just go and buy a copy, or the eBook, because the second book is due to come out soon. Lorelei hasn't got a publishing date as yet, but it might be in a month or so. And you sure as heck don't' want to be left behind. I was just speaking to her last night, and she tells me she is finished with a 1st draft of the third book and is working on a first draft of the fourth. Trying to keep up with me, you see? I keep her sort of busy with all my many adventures with the vampires, werewolves, demons, new worlds, elves, and leprechauns and so forth.

Well, guess that's all I can think of saying to keep you all up to date. Oh, and there is a couple of first chapters, I believe here for the next book Vampire's Trill. I believe there are other chapters and excerpts from her next books as well. So, enjoy! I'll be hanging around, just in case Lorelei needs me. Happy weekend everyone!